Respect
by BHS
Summary: Yayoi Kise is a crybaby, a timid girl who loves superheroes and secretly wants to be a manga artist. One day, she meets a magical creature that offers her a chance to be a superhero for real... but this is not the story that you think it is... WARNING: Violence, angst, disturbing imagery.
1. Dawning Sun

**RESPECT**

By BHS

Based on "The Illustrator" by Abicion

**Part 1: Dawning Sun  
**

"No, please! Please give it back, Sato-san!"

"Give what back? You mean this?" That was Arisu Sato, speaking with mock ingnorance, her dark eyes shining with cruelty. With deliberate slowness she pulled the page out of the sketchbook, taking pleasure in how the sound of tearing paper almost caused her victim physical pain. Once separated from the spine, she gave the drawing a brief glance. "That's Taiyoman, right? Isn't that show for babies?"

"Don't do it, Sato-san, I beg you! I worked so hard on it…"

"You're begging me, and yet you're forgetting something, aren't you?"

There was a long pause. "… Sato-sama. Please, Sato-sama."

"That's better." Arisu smiled… she was such a beautiful girl for her age, almost like a high-school student. Though the year had only started weeks ago, already she was receiving love letters and requests for dates on a daily basis. She was unusually tall, with long black hair, pale skin, bright eyes despite their dark color, perfect teeth, perfect posture… the Japanese epitome of a young lady. The Sato family was very rich, and it showed in her bearing, in the polite way she spoke in class, in her arrivals in the morning via the family limousine, in her extravagant boxed lunches that she brought every day, always stuffed with things that most students only ate once a year.

That was the Arisu Sato that most of the world saw. There was another Arisu Sato underneath her skin, one that was as far from the sweet and demure student council president everyone thought they knew as the earth was from the sun. Though she went on token dates and was popular among her classmates, there were only two people she could ever say she tolerated: Hidariko and Migiko, the tough, athletic girls who held a much smaller girl between them at the other end of the girls' bathroom. Hidariko and Migiko were her henchwomen, her lackeys, her allies; on the rare occasions that she couldn't talk her way out of trouble with her silver tongue, they were there to take the fall, always. One might have called them her friends… unless one knew Arisu's true nature. In that case, it would be obvious: Arisu Sato had no friends, only subordinates.

"She said it," grunted Migiko, keeping a tight grip on the squirming girl's shoulder. "You want us to let her go now, _aniki_?"

"Hmm," said Arisu, putting a delicate finger to her lips. "No, I don't think so. I don't think she meant it. Keep her still." With that she dropped the drawing into the sink. Her hand hovered over the faucet's spigot.

"_No!_" That was Yayoi Kise, fourteen years old, small for her age and timid as a newborn mouse. She shook her head back and forth, the blond curls that framed her cute round face shaking with the motion. Once more she pulled against the hands of the two larger girls flanking her, trying to escape, trying to save her precious drawing from what she knew was going to happen… Tears spilled freely from her wide brown eyes. "S-Sato-sama, d-don't do it! You m-mustn't!"

"Aww, look at that!" Arisu's laugh was musical; it echoed pleasantly in the small space, off the polished tiles. "See, I _knew_ you'd start crying. Hidariko, you owe me five-hundred yen." Her smile changed, morphing from the pleasant one she wore for her parents and teachers into a sadistic smirk. "I guess it makes sense, really. The crybaby watches baby shows like Taiyoman."

"I-it's not…" Yayoi sobbed, unable to get words out. "I-I-I'm not a-"

"Yes you are," said Arisu coolly. "You're a baby, and you always will be, Kise. You just can't grow up… For God's sake, you're what, fourteen? You really think you can get anywhere in life doodling superheroes from _toku_ shows all day?"

"I… I…"

"Really, I'm doing you a favor. Maybe _this_ year you'll learn your lesson." With that, she twisted the spigot. A jet of cold water poured from the faucet, soaking the paper through instantly. Taiyoman's trademark mask and armor slid away, the graphite lines melting into wet pulp.

The first few times they had done this, Yayoi had wailed in despair. Now she simply watched in silence, tears rolling down her round cheeks as her work faded away into the water. She sagged against the hands holding her. There was no point in struggling now. They had won, like they always did.

After a minute, Arisu shut the water off. Gingerly she fished the sodden piece of paper out of the sink basin, holding it between thumb and forefinger as if it were poisonous. "_Now_ you can let her go, you two."

They did; Yayoi stumbled to the tile floor, dropping to her hands and knees, unable and unwilling to look up at her tormentors. Droplets of water fell from her lashes, dripping into the gaps between the tiles. Then something else began to fall around her… scraps of wet paper.

"We'd better get back to class," said Arisu. "_Sensei_ might catch on if we're late. Kise?" She squatted down on her haunches before Yayoi. "You're not going to tell anyone about our fun, right?"

Yayoi's lip trembled. "No."

"No _what_, Kise?"

The rest of her joined in the trembling. "No, Sato-sama."

"Good. We'll see you after school." Three pairs of soles clicked across the floor, pushed the door open, and left her behind, her only company the sound of the dripping faucet.

_Why? Why can't I do anything?_

She knew very well why; Arisu's last warning was hardly necessary. _Weak_, people called her when they thought she couldn't hear. _Coward, wimp, whiny little crybaby_. All of it was true. Yayoi couldn't even muster up the courage to tell her teachers about Arisu and her lackeys… standing up to her personally was out of the question. Not that the teachers would believe her if she did tell; in their eyes, Arisu could do no wrong.

So for weeks now, she had simply let it happen, putting up token resistance, always anticipating the moment when they had had their fun and would leave her alone. She was too small and timid to fight back… trying to do so would only make Arisu do worse than tear up her drawings.

Yayoi curled into a ball on the floor, hugging her knees tight against her chin. _I could stay like this_, she thought. _I could just stay here until the end of the day. Nobody would notice me, and when the bell rings I can just get my bag and go home._

No, that wouldn't work. Hadn't Arisu already said they would be waiting for her? Fresh tears began to fall. She tried to curl up tighter, and something poked her side.

Her sketchbook… they had left it behind. Through some small mercy, or maybe just a short attention span, Arisu had only ruined one drawing today. The rest were still intact. Smiling just a little despite herself, Yayoi flipped through the pages: Taiyoman punching a boulder and shattering it into dust, Taiyoman rescuing people from a burning building, Taiyoman piloting the immense Taiyo Majin to battle invading aliens…

It wasn't just Taiyoman that she loved, though he was her favorite. Super Sentai, Metal Heroes, Kamen Rider, Rescue Force… she watched them all. Anything with a superhero excited her; at home she even had a sizeable number of American comic books, mostly Justice League and the X-Men, though there were many others that most people in Japan had never heard of: Power Pack. The Howling Commandoes. Hawk and Dove. Sandman. She loved them all, loved slipping into adventures where people in brightly-colored costumes could harness amazing powers to overcome impossible odds. They fascinated and thrilled her, and her greatest ambition in life was to become a _manga-ka_ and create those kinds of adventures for herself, and for other people. They were her escape from a world that all too often seemed to side with real-life supervillains.

No one understood her passion. Akane, Nao, and Reika chatted with her occasionally, but she didn't dare tell them about her drawings or her love of superheroes… they would never understand. Worse still, they might turn out like Arisu and make fun of her for it, or even worse, join in the torment…

Yayoi sat up and hugged her sketchbook tightly to herself, burying it in the folds of her yellow cardigan. Shivering, she whispered to the empty bathroom: "I wish I could make them see." Then, speaking louder than she ever dared in front of other people, "I wish I could make them respect my drawings. Respect _me…_"

The last thing Yayoi Kise ever expected was for someone to hear her make that wish. Or rather, some_thing_. A pair of round red eyes gazed unblinkingly at her from the bathroom windowsill. There was a creature sitting there where none had been before, swishing its bushy tail back and forth with interest. It tilted its head, and it spoke to her in her mind, its cool and clinical as a surgeon's knife. _Is that really what you wish for, Yayoi Kise?_

Yayoi's head jerked up. She whirled around and let out a very small scream, more like a squeak than anything else. Something was sitting on the windowsill, a creature sort of like a cat and sort of like a rabbit. And it was _talking…_ not out loud, but speaking telepathically. Talking to her, with no hint of scorn or mockery in its cool voice. "Who… who are you? _What_ are you?" she said to it, strangely unafraid.

_My name is Kyubey,_ it said. _I'm a Messenger of Magic._

"Messenger of Magic…?" Yayoi repeated, her brown eyes going wide. Inside, some small part of her screamed with excitement: _This is it. You always dreamed of this happening to you, and now it's happening. It's real, it's _real…

_Yes,_ said Kyubey. _Your wish summoned me to you, Yayoi Kise. I can grant you that wish._

Her eyes sparkled with hope of an impossible desire being fulfilled. "R-Really? You're not joking? You can really… grant my wish?"

The creature nodded. _Indeed. All you need to do is make a contract with me, and become a magical girl…_

**END OF PART 1**


	2. Rising Sun

**RESPECT**

By BHS

Based on "The Illustrator", by Abicion

**Part 2: Rising Sun**

"So all I have to do…" said Yayoi to the being that called itself Kyubey, "… is fight Witches, and I'll get my wish? That's it?"

_That's it,_ said Kyubey. _We can even make the contract now, if you'd like._

The blonde-haired girl was kneeling on the tile floor, entranced by this strange creature that seemed to have stepped out of an anime. He had hopped down from the windowsill, and was now sitting close enough to her to touch… she desperately wanted to pet those cute long ears of his, but some instinct held her back. What he was offering was incredible, a chance to live her secret fantasy: to be _something_, not just a powerless little crybaby that got harassed by other girls, but a superhero. A _real_ superhero like Taiyoman, fighting monsters and protecting justice. And with a wish on top of that?

"I'll do it," whispered Yayoi, nodding her head. She wasn't exactly sure why she was whispering; the bathroom was empty apart from Kyubey and herself. "I don't know how good I'll be at fighting, but I'll do it." She took a deep breath. "I wish… I could make people respect my drawings."

_Then it's agreed._ The tips of Kyubey's long ears began to glow, lifting off the floor and reaching for her like fingers. Yayoi felt a rush of fear and excitement so finely intertwined that she couldn't separate one feeling from the other. The ear-tips stretched, sinking into pools of nothingness an inch from her body. Something inside her heaved, and a small gasp escaped her lips. Kyubey was withdrawing something from her, pulling it out of her body… Distantly, she felt a tearing, wrenching sensation, and she shuddered… but the moment she thought about it, it melted away. A bright glow emerged from the empty space in front of her chest, hovering there between Kyubey's ears…

_The contract is complete_, said Kyubey._ Your wish has surpassed entropy._

The glow solidified, forming something solid that shone from within like a lantern, very small but warm and comforting, like her favorite night light from when she was a child. Yayoi reached for it even as a wave of sudden exhaustion swept over her, as she tilted backward, as her vision went black…

When she awoke, the catlike creature was sitting on her chest, holding something in his paws. She was lying flat on her back, looking up at the bathroom ceiling… it seemed oddly clear to her, sharpened and defined in a way she couldn't identify. Her lips moved… her voice was faint. "Kyu… bey…?"

_Good, you're awake,_ he said, tilting his head to one side. _Are you all right, Yayoi?_

"Just felt… faint for a second," she muttered. She reached for the object in his paws… her hands felt oddly fuzzy, filled with ginger ale, like they had been asleep for some time. "What is that?"

The glowing object looked like a Fabergé egg, a bright yellow jewel in a golden setting, with a lightning bolt-shaped design at its crown. A serene smile spread across her face as she touched it, felt its warmth spread through her body. _Golden yellow, just like me_, she thought dimly. Aloud, she said, "What is it?"

_This is your Soul Gem, the source of your power, _said Kyubey. _You must guard it carefully._

"I will." She nodded again. There was no way she would let it out of her sight… it was her link to the world she had always imagined, she would never let anything happen to it. Fascinated, she watched as it changed into a yellow streak of light that wrapped around the third finger of her left hand… it solidified into a silver ring inscribed with strange runes, and set with an amber stone. There was now a mark on her fingernail, identical to the lightning bolt from the top of the Soul Gem. "Now how do I-"

The distant sound of a clanging bell interrupted her. Her brown eyes grew wide with panic. "Oh no, this is terrible! I have to get to class, I'm gonna be late!" Clambering to her feet, she bowed hurriedly to Kyubey and retrieved her bag and sketchbook, then leaped for the door. "Please excuse me, Kyubey-san! I have to go!"

Kyubey followed her as she ran out into the hall. _Yayoi, wait. You don't have to-_

"_Uwaaaah!_"

CRASH.

The hall monitor and a passing teacher stared at the little blonde girl that had just tripped over her own feet and fallen flat on her face, who was now sprawled and motionless on the floor.

- _to rush,_ finished Kyubey as he padded up to her. _I can stay with you, if you'd like. No one else will know._

"Th-thank you," she sniffled quietly, rising to her knees and rubbing at her sore nose with the sleeve of her cardigan. "I'd like that."

Kyubey heaved a mental sigh, though to himself so the girl wouldn't hear. What strange creatures humans could be.

* * *

It was even more difficult than usual for Yayoi to pay attention in class. Throughout the rest of the day's lessons, Kyubey sat in her lap and whispered to her, telling her how to use her powers, how to replenish them with Grief Seeds from defeated Witches, and what magic could be used for. A few times she almost answered him aloud before she caught herself, drawing a stare or two from her classmates; soon she learned to communicate with him using only her thoughts, and by the last period it was almost natural. She took no notes that day; her grades would probably suffer later for it, but she found she didn't care.

At the end of the day, for the first time in a long time she walked out of the school gates with a smile. There was a long-absent warmth in her heart, a tingling anticipation of an adventure about to begin. Already she was thinking of little Kyubey as her secret best friend, her guardian angel, her fairy godmother… she giggled to herself at that last thought. _He _would_ look kind of cute in a dress…_

"_Oi,_ Kise! What're _you_ so happy about?"

She came crashing down to reality as Arisu, Hidariko, and Migiko stepped around a corner, their arms folded. Arisu seemed to find Yayoi smiling personally repugnant… her pretty face twisted into a scowl as she stomped forward. "Don't tell me you already forgot your lesson from this afternoon?"

Yayoi whimpered and clutched her schoolbag tight to her chest. _Kyubey…!_ she thought at the little creature by her ankles.

_It's all right,_ he said, his confidence bolstering hers slightly. _We talked about this, remember? Just do exactly as we planned._

"You know," said Arisu, reaching into her bag, "I'm thinking maybe what we're trying to tell you isn't sinking into that thick head of yours, Kise. Maybe it's time to try something a little different."

"D-Different?"

"Get out your sketchbook," said Arisu, her voice dangerously soft, like poison wrapped in silk.

Yayoi's lip trembled. If this didn't work… "A-All right, Sato-san…"

Arisu made a fist, and her lackeys sniggered.

"Sato-sama! I'm sorry, I forgot…"

"That's better. Seems you're really forgetful today, huh, Kise?"

Yayoi didn't answer. Her hands trembling, she made a show of digging into her bag for her sketchbook. She felt the familiar rings of its binding, but that wasn't what she was searching for. Focusing with all her might, she directed her power into her ring, just as Kyubey had tought her. Hoping the flash of light would not be seen inside the bag, she felt it materialize at her fingertips. Her heart beat faster as she traced the embossed golden lettering on the cover... Just as she had imagined.

"Well, come on! We don't have all day!" Arisu's limited patience was growing thin.

"J-Just a minute, Sato-sama…" Shaking with a combination of nerves and anticipation, she withdrew the new sketchbook, the special one she had crafted with her magic. It looked rather like an old storybook, with a handsome leather cover and binding, her name inscribed on the front in strange runic script that she couldn't read yet, the letters shining gold. The spine creaked excitingly as she opened it for the first time, and she shivered, inhaling the scent of fresh, clean paper. Yayoi loved opening a new sketchbook for the first time; a ream of pristine white pages always promised new ideas, new possibilities… and this particular book held far more than most.

Arisu snatched it out of her hand before she could finish savoring the moment. Idly she flipped through the pages, frowning in confusion. "The hell's this? Did you get a new one, Kise? It's all blank!"

Yayoi swallowed. "Y-Yes, Sato-sama."

Hidariko and Migiko slouched up behind their leader, wearing identical frowns. "You think this is funny?" growled Arisu, brandishing the book as if she meant to hit Yayoi with it for her impudence. "Is this your idea of a joke? Or do you think you'd just too _clever_ for us, giving us a blank book?"

"Maybe she thinks we're too dumb to notice, _aniki_," said Migiko.

"Yeah, well guess what?" Arisu's lips curled into an ugly sneer. "You think we're just gonna let you off easy for this, you've got another thing coming. We'll get rid of _this_ book first, then your other one… then maybe teach you a couple more lessons for being smart with me." Her free hand pulled something from her schoolbag… a tarnished silver cigarette lighter. With practiced ease she flipped it open one-handed and spun the wheel, igniting a spark, and then a flame…

Hardly believing her own boldness in the face of this new aggression, Yayoi reached up and touched the sketchbook's leather cover with her left hand. Screwing her eyes shut, she concentrated hard, sending her mental command to the book, along with a desperate prayer: _Please, let this work._

"Wha-" Her action caught Arisu completely by surprise. Her hand released its grip on the lighter in her shock, and it began to fall. The book was opening in her hand, by itself… "What are you-"

There was a flash of amber light, a clap of displaced air, a sudden breeze that ruffled Yayoi's blonde curls. Arisu, Hidariko, and Migiko were there one instant, and simply _gone_ the next. Not a trace of them was left, except for the lighter already falling to the sidewalk, its flame extinguished. Yayoi fumbled, trying to catch the book, but it slipped between her fingers and fell open on the pavement, wisps of smoke rising from it…

Its pages were blank no longer. On the left-hand page was a pen-and-ink Arisu Sato, drawn in Yayoi's manga style, still with an expression of disbelief on her pretty face. Hidariko and Migiko shared a page on the right, equally stupefied.

Yayoi could feel nothing but the pounding of her heart in her breast. _It worked_, she thought numbly. _It actually worked. I can't believe it…_

_Of course it worked, _thought Kyubey with just a touch of pride. _I granted your wish. This was what you designed the book to do, after all, and real magic _always _works._

Trembling more than ever, Yayoi knelt and picked up the book, holding it tight… as her fingers touched the paper, the pen drawings of the three girls began to move. She watched, fascinated, as Arisu blinked, looked back and forth at the white void she was trapped in, and opened her mouth to speak… Just like in a manga, a speech bubble appeared next to her, drawn as if by an invisible pen, and neat little ink _kana_ printed: "_What the hell? What happened? Hidariko? Migiko? Kise…?_" Yayoi even heard her voice in the back of her mind, but faintly, as if from far away.

On the other page, the two lackeys stared at each other, looked down at themselves, touched their hands and fingers to make sure they were all there… then they began to babble incoherently, their speech bubbles overlapping. Yayoi could hear their words as well, a tiny, irritating buzz of noise like flies might make… With but a thought, she tuned it out.

A bright, winning smile spread across her face as she clapped the book closed. She had done it, she had really done it. Arisu and her lackeys were powerless. As soon as she got home, Yayoi would teach them a lesson… and then they would never hurt her or anyone else again. Pressing the book to her chest, she gripped the strap of her schoolbag tightly as she ran for home, leaving the tarnished lighter lying abandoned on the walk. Unseen by anyone else, Kyubey ran after her.

* * *

Halfway home, the catlike creature halted in his tracks. _Yayoi, wait. _His face was unmoving as ever, but there was a note of caution in his voice.

Yayoi slowed to a stop, wobbling a bit on one heel. "Hmm? What's wrong?"

_I feel something._

"You do? What is it?"

_Darkness,_ said Kyubey ominously, making her shiver. _I think it's time to fulfill your end of your contract._

"N-Now?" She stared at him incredulously. "This soon?"

_I admit, it's slightly unusual for a Puella Magi to go into battle so soon after contracting, but there's no other choice. I don't feel any others nearby._

"Wait, you said 'others', does that mean-"

_Yayoi, quickly. You need to find some place out of sight where you can transform._

"Oh! Right!" A quick glance revealed a narrow alleyway across the street. Scooping Kyubey into her arms, she ducked into it, pressing herself against the brick wall. Her heart fluttered with nervous excitement. "So I'm _that_ kind of magical girl, huh… That's good, I don't know what I'd do if I had to make a costume myself."

_Yes, I suppose that would be difficult. Summon your Soul Gem,_ said Kyubey, hopping down to street level.

Nodding, Yayoi focused her energy on her ring, just as she had to create the sketchbook. _Appear_, she thought… and she was barely finished thinking it when the ring unwound from her finger and changed into the warm, glowing, egg-shaped jewel, which fell into her open palm. "Now, do I have to say anything, or-"

The process began before she could finish the question. Yayoi gasped as her feet left the ground, and the Soul Gem shone with golden light that wrapped her in its embrace. Her body moving by itself, in a dance far more graceful than she could manage on her own, she felt her school uniform falling away. Before she could be concerned that someone could see her body, the girl felt new and unfamiliar clothes replacing her uniform, piece by piece. The Soul Gem transformed again, attaching itself to her hip, the light shrank away and faded…

Yayoi blinked and stumbled as it let her go. Her first thought was that her new costume was very _yellow…_ yellow and frilly seemed to be the two defining elements. White, V-cut boots, a pleated yellow skirt with a white ruffle, a sort of yellow-and-white leotard or sleeveless overcoat with a big bow on the front, puffy shoulders, cuffs on her wrists… and the Soul Gem on her hip, now in the shape of a lightning bolt. She turned, trying to look back over her shoulder, and the weight of a much different hairstyle than she had had a moment ago moved with her… from what she could feel, she now had a very large, fan-shaped ponytail extending from a peak at the top of her head. Not exactly what she pictured as a battle outfit, but she supposed she wasn't cut out to wear armor like Taiyoman's, after all. "It's… really cute," she whispered, looking down at herself and taking stock. Her hands traveled to the bow on her front. There was a brooch there, golden and shining, but for some reason it looked oddly plain; the surface was smooth and blank, and she couldn't shake the bizarre feeling that there should be something there…

_Yayoi? _said Kyubey, startling her. She had almost forgotten he was there. _Are you ready to go?_

"Y-Yeah, I'm ready," said Yayoi, clenching her small fists. She could already feel power circulating through her, almost intoxicating… then she remembered, and faltered a bit. "Wait. Kyubey, what's my name? I can't just call myself 'Yayoi'…"

Kyubey paused at the entrance to the alley. _I don't understand. Why would you need a different name? Don't you like your own?_

"Well, _yes_, but… this is my secret-" She sighed. "Never mind, let's go. I'll think of something on the way." Her mind buzzed as she ran: _Taiyogirl, Lady Taiyo, Goldizer, Sun Golden, Sunshine Sketch, Sun Yellow, Yellow Ranger… no, no, that won't work…_

* * *

With Kyubey's help, the light of her Soul Gem led her to a small children's park, not too far from her home. Yayoi allowed herself to be amazed by the abilities of her transformed state: running all the way there didn't tire her in the least, and she easily cleared the fence surrounding the park with a spectacular vertical leap, touching down on the other side with a graceful, quiet _thump_ instead of an embarrassing fall. Wasting no time, she followed her Gem's light like a beacon.

There were two figures ahead: one very tall and upright, the other much smaller and prone on the ground. As Yayoi approached them, something happened to the sky… Late afternoon turned into dead of night, with a huge full moon hanging overhead. _That's not possible, it was only a crescent moon last night! It's gotta be him that's doing it…_

Jabbing a finger at the taller figure, she shouted with as much volume as she could as she ground to a halt: "Hold it right… there?" Her voice petered out into a squeak, her finger wavered.

The first thing she saw was the teeth; they gleamed in the light of the full moon, dagger-shaped and pearly white, set in a long, pointed snout. Piercing blue eyes glared at her in a mixture of annoyance and amusement. The wolf-man turned around, brushing back a very long mane of white hair… he was dressed like a biker, all in black, with a sleeveless, high-collared shirt and silver-studded bands around his wrists and biceps. Leering at her, he put one hand on his hip. The other balanced an ominous-looking black book, wrapped in an aura of dark power.

That aura surrounded a second figure, a green-haired girl in some kind of bronze chain mail… details were hard to make out, as the aura was obscuring her features like fog. This girl was huddled in a fetal position on the dusty ground, rocking slightly back and forth, and Yayoi heard her moan…

"Another one?" said the wolf, his tone boisterous and rude. "Geez, what a pain. Wait your turn while I finish off this one… shouldn't take long."

Her concern for the other girl overrode Yayoi's fear. "Wh-what are you doing to her? Stop it right now!"

"What do _you_ care, midget?" the wolf snorted with contempt. "It's none of your business. Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm…" Yayoi struck the first pose she could think of, raising her right arm at an angle and bringing her left up to her side, making a fist. She swallowed. _Oh no, I didn't even think of a speech or anything! This isn't going well…_ There were several moments of awkward silence. "Well… I'm not exactly sure what my name is yet," she admitted shamefully, "but I'm gonna stop you anyway! Let that girl go!"

The wolf sighed and closed his book. "Look, kid, obviously you're new at this, so why don't you just-"

"_Run,_" said another voice.

Both Yayoi and the wolf stared. The voice had come from the girl on the ground. She had pulled herself into a kneeling position, and had her hands clasped over her heart. Tears streamed down her face from her haunted eyes… she was staring at Yayoi. Her voice built into a scream. "Get away from him, before it's too late!_ RUN!"_

Yayoi heard something shatter, and the other girl's scream grew wild, primal, echoing on far past the point where her voice should have faded out. Her body jerked backward spastically as something black rose from her heart, and she screamed even louder to the inexplicable night sky, her eyes staring sightlessly up at the full moon. There was something else in her voice now, an inhuman screech that grated up and down Yayoi's spine... A black whirlwind surrounded her as she slumped over, still howling, still staring. The whirlwind grew, and grew, and grew, snatching up the wolf, Yayoi, and Kyubey, just now coming up behind them. Clouds of fog blossomed in the park, obscuring it from sight… Yayoi's own scream and the startled cry of the wolf were swallowed by its depths.

**END OF PART 2**


	3. Midday Sun

**RESPECT**

By BHS

Based on "The Illustrator", by Abicion

**Part 3: Noonday Sun**

Yayoi Kise lay on her back where she had fallen, and stared helplessly upward as the world tore itself apart.

She wouldn't have been able to describe it if she tried. It looked like something from a particularly surreal horror anime: streaks of color unrolling like carpets across the starry sky, bizarre growths thicker than tree trunks sprouting all around, growing into impossible shapes, dozens of voices all talking, shouting, and screaming gibberish at once… it was a sensory overload, a kaleidoscope of light and sound. She couldn't take the stimulus; as the space warped itself into a somewhat more solid form, she passed out cold.

When she awoke several minutes later, she found herself lying in the saucer-like cap of a mushroom the size of a five-story building. Not _on_ the cap, _in_ it; the fungus grew upside-down, its stem reaching for the sickly-green sky far overhead. At its peak grew thin white mycelium that wriggled like fingers… the sight made her nauseous.

There was nothing else for it… wherever this place was, she could find out nothing more about it by staying in one spot. Carefully she crawled over the cap's gills, trying to ignore the queasy squishing noises that they made as she did so, and pulled herself up to the cap's brim to take a look around.

The mushroom she occupied was just one among an entire forest of them, growing so close together that the lips of their caps touched each other, or in some cases grew into each other like conjoined twins. Looking down (or was it up?), she saw that each of the enormous fungi stood, apparently unsupported, in a sea of stagnant water choked with algae. There was no way to tell how deep that water was, and the last thing Yayoi wanted was to put a toe in to test it. Of the park that she had been in, there was no sign at all… nor could she see or hear anything of the wolf, his victim, or Kyubey.

"H-Hello…?" Her voice, timid and frightened, echoed weirdly off the forest of stems. By the time it bounced back to her, it didn't sound like her voice at all. There was no reply. Everything else was silent. Gripping the brim so tightly that her fingers left dents in its flesh, she called out again. "Kyubey? Can you hear me? Wh-where are you?"

Again, no answer. Swallowing heavily, Yayoi gave herself a boost, climbing up onto the very edge of the cap. A short jump took her to the interior of the next mushroom… as she touched down, a cloud of spores erupted from the gills beneath her feet. The tiny motes were in her eyes, nose, and mouth before she could think to cover them… For the next few minutes, the oppressive silence was broken by the noise of a tremendous coughing and sneezing fit.

Red-eyed and sputtering, Yayoi sank miserably to her knees. _Some hero _I_ am,_ she thought bitterly, feeling tears welling up. _I hate this place, I want to go home! I want to draw and do chores and homework and eat Mama's cooking and-_

She sensed something moving, which pulled her from her bout of self-pity. There was a _thing_ crawling past her, clambering over the gills. Horror and fascination gripped her in equal measure as she watched it. The closest things she could compare it to were armored gloves, two of them, like a European knight might wear, welded together at the wrists and scuttling along on ten fingers… or legs, she couldn't tell which. How it knew where it was going was a mystery to her; it didn't seem to have any kind of sensory organ at all, all it had were plates of gleaming chrome armor and finger-legs. In a moment, another one passed her knee, then another and another… they were all heading in the same direction.

Following their path with her eyes, she looked up… and saw the body of the other girl, the wolf's victim, lying motionless about fifteen meters in front of her. Yayoi made a very strange sound, somewhere between a cry of relief and a scream of shock, and struggled ungracefully to her feet. Crossing the cap in a few long strides, she knelt again when she reached the girl's side, and gripped her shoulder. "_Sempai!_" she shouted, for it was clear to her, though she didn't quite know _how_, that this girl was another Puella Magi, just like her… "_Sempai_, wake up!" The bronze chainmail she had been wearing before was gone, now she wore a high-school uniform that Yayoi didn't recognize. "_Sempai?_"

The girl was warm, but unresponsive… she wasn't even breathing. Giving her a little shake, Yayoi moved her hand, feeling at her neck for a pulse. There was none. "_S-Sempai…?_" _Oh no. Oh no. She can't be-_

From behind her, a clawed hand dropped onto her shoulder. A growling voice said: "_Oi,_ you."

"_Kyaaaaaaaaa!_" Yayoi moved so quickly that the wolf didn't have time to say anything more. In one fluid motion, far more graceful than anything she could manage in her normal life, she snatched the hand from her shoulder, spun around, and summoned the pen from her pocketspace… The pen was the second magical item she had crafted with Kyubey's help, the sketchbook being the first. It was plated with brass, sported a gleaming silver nub, and its body was slanted and ridged to resemble a lightning bolt. It was a very, very special pen; the wolf was about to find out just _how_ special.

Moving underneath his outstretched arm, Yayoi jabbed the nub of the pen into the wolf's side and concentrated hard. She felt the current build up from somewhere in her center, travel down her arm, flow into the pen, and explode from the nub… the process took less than a second. A searing bolt of electricity surged through the wolf, knocking him a full three meters backward into a sprawling heap. Tiny wisps of smoke rose from his body as he lay there twitching, and smaller arcs danced through his singed fur, some of which was standing on end.

Hyperventilating, Yayoi clutched at her heart to try to prevent it from clawing out of her chest. In her other hand, the pen shook as she trembled uncontrollably. Her first magical attack… she had done it. She didn't know exactly _how_, but she had done it.

The wolf coughed and sat up painfully. "Owww… you little _bitch_, that _hurt…!_" he said, rubbing at his side.

"_You!_" she shouted at him, her voice louder and higher-pitched than she had intended. "Who are you? Where is this place?"

"I was gonna ask you the same question, before you friggin' _shocked _me!" Glaring at her, the wolf tried to climb to his feet. "Goddammit, what's the matter with you, kid? Didn't you mother ever teach you manners?"

"D-don't you talk to me like that, you… y-you did something weird to her!" Yayoi kept the pen trained on him as she moved to the side, shielding the girl's body with her own. "What did you do?"

"Right, first off, the name's Wolfrun," he said, curling his hands into fists. "Second of all, I don't know _what_ happened to her, one minute I'm draining her Bad Energy, the next minute _you_ show up and the world goes all to hell! I've got no better idea where we are than you do, so why don't you just calm down and put the shocky pen thing away…"

"No, never!" Yayoi shook her head. "There's no way I'm trusting you, you were hurting her… you're a bully and a villain!"

"You _think?_" said Wolfrun with an ugly sneer that bared his curving fangs. "I'm from the Bad End Kingdom, genius, we're _all_ villains! But I swear, I was trying to _drain_ that girl, not _kill_ her, and I sure as hell didn't want to end up in some freaky-ass mushroom world-"

"Liar," Yayoi almost spat the word. "Even if you _were_ telling the truth… If you're a villain, then it's my duty to stop you, no matter what." She nodded, mostly to herself, and set her lip.

"Okay, enough of this," growled Wolfrun, taking several menacing steps forward. "You don't want to listen? Fine. Maybe I'll just beat some sense into you!" With that he charged forward at full speed, baring his sharp fangs and claws…

He never had a chance. Yayoi's pen disappeared, and an instant later her sketchbook popped out of her pocketspace to replace it. Flipping to a blank page, she held it open to the wolf as he advanced. There was a flash of amber light, a clap of air rushing in to fill the void he left behind, and-

The sketchbook hissed quietly as it cooled down. On the page, there was now a pen-and-ink outline of Wolfrun, still in mid-charge… as she watched, he lost his balance upon finding himself in the white void, tripped, and fell sprawling. Curses appeared in speech bubbles above his head; disgusted by his language, she blocked the sound from her mind and slammed the book shut decisively. "There. That takes care of that." Turning back to the prone figure of the older girl, she tried to smile. "Don't worry, _sempai_. He's gone now. I'll get you out of here, I promise."

_That might prove difficult_, said a familiar mental voice.

"_Kya!_" His sudden appearance startled her so much that a few stray sparks flew out from her fingertips. "Kyubey! Where _were_ you?" She knelt down and hugged the little creature that had appeared by her feet.

_Lost within the Maze, just as you and the wolf were,_ he said, not sounding particularly pleased… or upset, for that matter.

"Maze? Is that what…" She waved vaguely at the forest of mushrooms. "… what all this is?"

_Yes. This is the domain of a Witch. You'll have to defeat it in order to leave._

"A Witch… so that's what he was doing! Wolfrun must have summoned it, right?"

Kyubey tilted his head. _I suppose you could put it that way._

"Well then, let's find it and stop it!"

_Somehow, I doubt finding it will be a problem._

Yayoi paled a bit. "Wh-what do you mean?"

_I was able to track you down by sensing the discharges of your magical energy. It's safe to assume the Witch can do the same._

The mushroom trembled underneath Yayoi's feet, prompting a squeak of fright.

_I suggest you prepare yourself_, said Kyubey, hopping down from her arms._ Don't use the book this time, I doubt it will be effective._

"Wh-why not?" The book disappeared back into storage the instant she thought about it. "Do I _have_ to fight it? Can't I just-"

The rest of her question died in her throat. Something was rising out of the stagnant lake below the mushroom's cap, something enormous. She could hear the water rushing off its body as it broke the surface, and slowly a shape rose up over the lip of the saucer, and kept on rising, and rising…

Covered in plates of chrome armor, just as the little hand creatures had been, the Witch was long and serpentine, with dozens, no, _hundreds _of squirming, chitinous legs. Each leg had more legs sprouting from it in turn, like fingers, all moving at once, testing the air. As it turned, she caught sight of the head, where the plates of armor tapered forward to a conical point like a knight's lance, and two razor-sharp metal crescent pincers protruded from its mouth. It wasn't until its underside came into view that Yayoi began screaming… for the underside of each segment of its mighty body bore a face: arranged like a human's, but with the compound eyes of a fly, and a mouth wide open as if caught in a silent howl of terror. At the sound of Yayoi's screaming, all of the multiple compound eyes swiveled toward her… and in unison the faces let out an ear-splitting screech, like metal on metal, that drowned out the girl's voice in a hideous cacophony.

Though she could no longer even hear herself, Yayoi kept on screaming until her throat was raw, and even after that. It was _looking_ at her with those horrible eyes, she knew for certain it was angry at her intrusion into its lair…

_Yayoi_, said Kyubey's voice in her mind, somehow managing to be heard over the centipede's screeching. He registered no surprise at all at the hideous creature's appearance. _You need to stand up and fight._

The Witch's sinuous body wound back and forth like a snake, shedding more water with each movement. It was slowly lowering itself down to the level of its terrified prey. One thrust of the lance-like head could spear her through, one slice of those pincers could split her in half… if it didn't decide to simply swallow her whole. The endless screeching was sending vibrations through the mushroom, into Yayoi's feet and up and down her spine…

_Yayoi?_ said Kyubey, tilting his head again. _Did you hear me?_

"_I can't!_" she squealed, shaking her head frantically as she backed up against the mushroom's stem. Her voice was lost in the noise, a single leaf in a hurricane. "_I can't fight that thing! Please help me!_"

_This is what you agreed to do, Yayoi. You made a contract with me in exchange for your wish. This is your duty as a Puella Magi._

"_Nooooooooooo!_" Somehow she felt it tensing, ready to attack. More terrified than she had ever been in her life, Yayoi shrank down against the stem, her seat sinking slightly into the gills, paralyzed with fear. Tears that she couldn't feel ran down her cheeks. _No, no, no, no, no! I don't want this, I don't want to die! Somebody help me! Mama, somebody, anybody!_

Hurtling itself forward like a bullet train, it charged. Yayoi's hand leapt up in a feeble, useless attempt to stop it, and somehow, her pen appeared at her fingertips. There was no time to plan, no time to think. She grasped it and poured whatever power she had left into one last, huge bolt of power…

It shouldn't have worked. The centipede Witch's armor should have served as a lightning rod, insulating it from damage. But since it had spent so much of its existence within the stagnant lake, since its body was still wet, and since half of its length was still submerged below…

The faces' screeching was suddenly, horribly cut short as the Witch exploded. Numb from fear, Yayoi barely felt the wave of hot red blood that splashed over her. Her pen remained pointing forward in her outstretched hand as tiny fragments of flesh and armor rained down from the sickly green sky, which was slowly cracking like glass and falling apart…

In a few moments, the strange space Kyubey had called the Maze was gone. She and Kyubey and the older girl were sitting back in the park in the late afternoon. Cars passed lazily by, and cicadas sang their chirping melody all around…

Yayoi reached up a trembling hand to touch her face. It was wet and sticky; she withdrew it and gazed fascinated at the redness coating her fingertips. "K-K-Kyubey…?"

_That was very well impressive, Yayoi_, he said. _You did it. You won your first battle._

Something fell to the dusty ground in front of her… a little black sphere with a spindle rammed through it. She recognized it from Kyubey's description earlier: a Grief Seed, a Witch's egg… proof of its destruction.

_I killed it,_ she thought.

_ I killed it._

_ I killed it._

It was her victory, her triumph against impossible odds. Just like in her favorite superhero stories. So why didn't she feel elated? Why did she feel like she was going to be sick?

_Sempai_, she remembered suddenly. Very slowly, she turned around and crawled over to the other girl, shaking her shoulder again. "_Sempai_, it's okay now. The monster's gone, it's over. _Sempai?_"

There was no answer. The girl still wasn't breathing. When Yayoi felt her neck, her flesh was cold and lifeless.

Her veins filled with ice. "No. No. That's not fair. I… I beat the bad guy. I destroyed the Witch. Why aren't you okay? Why won't you wake up?" Once more, tears began to fall, cutting trails through the Witch blood slowly drying on her face. "That's how it's supposed to work. I won, so you should be okay, you should be back to normal…" She shook the girl again, harder this time. "_Sempai. Sempai… _please, answer me. I… I don't even know your name…"

The girl was silent and unmoving.

_Yayoi_, said Kyubey, as gently as he could manage. _We should go. There's nothing more you can do._

"Why, Kyubey?" whispered Yayoi, rising unsteadily to her feet. "Why? I was supposed to save her… why couldn't I save her? How can I be a hero if I can't even-"

_I can't answer that, I'm sorry, _said Kyubey, hopping onto her shoulder. _But if you remain here, you'll only attract attention. That would be bad, wouldn't it?_

"Y-Yes, but-"

_You should go. Drop your transformation and get yourself cleaned up. There's nothing you can do for her._

"But Kyubey… she must have had a _family_, she… I should at least bring her to the police, or-"

_The police would be suspicious of a fourteen-year-old covered in blood bringing them a dead body, wouldn't they?_

"I…"

_Come on, Yayoi. Take the Grief Seed and go._

With trembling hands she reached for the Seed where it lay in the dust. She scooped it into her palm and curled her fingers tight around it, its darkness and strangeness making her shiver… then she turned around and began to run.

**END OF PART 3**


	4. Sundown

**RESPECT**

By BHS

Based on "The Illustrator", by Abicion

_"No, please, please stop! I can't run anymore…!"_

_ "Come on, you have to get up. We can't stop here."_

_ "But the others… she… she took Reika and C-Candy, and… and what she did to poor Akane-"_

_ "Don't think about Akane, just don't."_

_ "But…"_

_ "I said _don't._ The… the only thing we can do is run away while we still can…"_

"_But we've got to s-stand our ground! We've got to fight her somehow!"_

_ "Don't you get it? Our powers aren't working on her, this is our only choice! Oh no, come on, get up! Please get back up…"_

_ "Why? Why is this happening? She… she should have been one of us, Candy said so… What _happened_ to her…?"_

**Part 4: Sundown**

_Click._ Yayoi pulled her bedroom door shut and turned over the lock. With her eyes shut tight, she crossed over to the chair in front of her drawing board and slumped into it. The temptation to just start crying and not stop until morning was overwhelming.

It had taken fifteen minutes of creeping unseen through Nanairogaoka's back streets to find a garden hose, sitting forgotten in someone's side yard. Another ten minutes to wash off all the blood. Only then did she drop her transformation, discovering to her blessed relief that her school uniform was still clean and unblemished. Then it took another half-hour trek to find the alley where she first transformed, to retrieve her schoolbag that she had left there. And another half-hour to walk home… Her mother was worried sick, and took her into her arms the moment she stepped through the door. Yayoi found none of her usual comfort in her embrace.

During dinner she barely ate anything, though that night it was _yakuniku_, one of her favorites. Always perceptive, her mother needled her with questions, trying to determine what was wrong, but Yayoi put on a false smile and told her everything was fine, that she was merely tired after a long day. She didn't tell her that the sight of meat was turning her stomach.

She sagged in the chair, wishing she could simply melt into it. That other girl, her _sempai_, was dead. Yayoi had failed her. She would lie there in the park until someone found her body. No chance to say goodbye to her family or friends, no heroic last words. She was there, and then she was gone, just like that. Again and again she had asked Kyubey _why_, why she couldn't do anything… the little creature had no answer. He had disappeared from her shoulder shortly before she came in the front door.

Her schoolbag rested on the table next to the drawing board. Normally when she felt depressed, she would take out her sketchbook and work well into the night. Her sketchbook-

_That's right. They're still in there._ Yayoi opened her eyes, moved the chair in front of the board, and summoned her sketchbook from pocketspace. It fell neatly open on the corkboard with a soft _thump._ Yayoi flipped through it, back to the first few pages…

There was Arisu Sato, still with a look of utmost confusion on her face, still with the speech bubble reading "_What the hell? What happened? Hidariko? Migiko? Kise…?_" hovering above her head. As Yayoi's fingers brushed the paper, she came to life, blinking and looking around, trying to determine where she was.

"It's your fault, you know," Yayoi whispered to her. "I made the contract and got this power because of you, Sato-san. Because you were so mean…"

To her astonishment, Arisu looked up at her, wide-eyed. "_Kise? Is that you?_" The speech bubble erased itself and printed new words as she spoke. Yayoi heard her voice in her mind as well, tiny and faint.

"You can see me?" she said to the pen-and-ink figure, hovering closer to the page.

"_Yeah, I see you,_" said Arisu, putting her hands on her hips. "_What the hell's going on, Kise? What did you do?_"

"I put you inside my sketchbook. My little friend and I came up with it… Hidariko and Migiko are in there too, on another page." Yayoi smiled just a bit. "I figured you'd respect my drawings if you actually _were_ one."

"_This isn't funny, Kise!_" Arisu stamped her foot. It struck against _something_ on the white void of the page, but Yayoi couldn't tell what. "_When my father finds out about this-_"

"You think he'll believe you?"

Arisu's face fell for just a moment. Stubbornly she crossed her arms and glared. "_Fine. What do you want with me?_"

That was a good question. Yayoi blinked; Arisu and her lackeys were trapped in there, sure, but now what? "I…"

"_Don't tell me you went through all this trouble just to chicken out, Kise…_" That smirk that Yayoi so hated appeared on Arisu's face. "_I don't know how you did it, but there's no way you'll try anything. I _know_ you. You don't have it in you to hurt anyone._"

"I think you're wrong," said Yayoi softly. "Do you know what I am now, Sato-san? I'm a Puella Magi, a magical girl. I killed a monster this afternoon, did you know that?"

Her face fell again. "_You… you're lying. Magical girls aren't real. Even if they were, you're too spineless to do something like that._"

"Maybe you don't know as much about me as you think, Sato-san." Now a note of anger was creeping into Yayoi's voice. "I had to fight that horrible thing in exchange for the power that put you in my book. I made a wish, and forged a contract. And I'll probably have to do it again." She glared down at Arisu's page. "I let someone die this afternoon, Sato-san. Even with my power, I couldn't save her. I couldn't… What if it happens again? What if I'm not strong enough?"

Tiny ink beads of sweat formed on Arisu's forehead. "_L-Look. We… we just wanted to have fun. If that's what this is about, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kise, okay? That's what you wanted to hear, right?_"

"Yes, that's what I wanted," said Yayoi, turning away for a moment.

"_Right, so… just let us out of here. We didn't know you were… doing all that stuff. Just let us go, I promise we'll never tear up your drawings again. Hell, we won't even _talk_ to you, just let us out of here… all right, Kise?_"

Yayoi looked back at Arisu, at her growing concern, at the helplessness that she had never seen on her tormentor's face before. She thought about it. "Do you swear? You'll really leave me alone?"

"_Yes, yes, I swear!_" said Arisu, rubbing her arms. "_C'mon, Kise, just let us out. If it's money you want, I can pay you, even. Let us out. Please?_"

"All right." Yayoi closed her eyes and concentrated her power into the Soul Gem set into her ring…

Nothing happened.

She tried again, very clearly picturing the three girls floating off the page and materializing in her room, visualizing what she wanted, just as Kyubey had taught her. Still nothing happened.

"_Well? Do it, Kise! Let me out!_" said Arisu's voice, growing just the tiniest bit frantic.

Yayoi turned pale. She tried a third time, concentrating so hard that her fingers gripped the corkboard, leaving marks from her nails… nothing. She looked at Arisu, her eyes wide, and whispered, "I can't."

"_You _what?"

"I can't," she said again. "I… I put you in the book, but I don't know how to turn you back…"

Arisu only looked frightened for a moment. Then her face twisted into the ugliest scowl Yayoi had ever seen. "_You little bitch. How dare you… how dare you do this to me?_"

"I… s-stop it." Yayoi's pale face flushed with color at the harsh language. "I-I'll ask Kyubey when he comes back, m-maybe he can-"

"_No!_" Arisu screamed, waving her fists impotently. The word was shouted so loudly that the speech bubble grew to take up a quarter of the page. "_No you don't, you miserable little freak, you're going to let me out of here right now!_"

"Sato-san, I just told you-"

"_Don't you 'Sato-san' me! Let me out! LET ME OUT, GODDAMN YOU!_"

"_Listen_ to me, Sato-san! I'll try again, just-"

Her voice was hysterical, flecks of spittle flew from her mouth. "_I'll get you, Kise, I swear! If it's the last thing I do, I'll make you pay for this! I'll tell my father, and he'll ruin you, and your mother, and the rest of your family, and all your pathetic little friends!_" The speech bubble filled up rapidly with harsh, jagged _kana. _"_I'll make you pay for this for the rest of your worthless life, do you hear-_"

Yayoi tuned out her mental voice, shutting off the tirade.

Arisu didn't realize that her captor could no longer hear her. Her speech still flowed in rapid lines through the text bubble, though… she used words that horrified Yayoi, words she hoped she would never use, even if she were that angry. Ugly, hateful, foul speech, promises of violence and revenge that she couldn't have imagined would come from such a beautiful face, even with all Arisu had done in the past to torment her.

"S-Sato-san, c-calm down. Just calm down. Please, I'll th-think of s-something…" Her hands were shaking now. The same cold feeling of helplessness from earlier this afternoon began building in her chest, just like when she had realized that her _sempai_ was dead…

The torrent of foul words continued unabated. Arisu was screaming blue murder.

"I-If you d-don't calm down…" Yayoi scrunched up her features, concentrating. Her lightning bolt pen appeared in her left hand. With her thumbnail she flicked the cap off, exposing the eraser she had integrated into the other end. She swallowed heavily. "If you don't calm down, I'll-"

Arisu's dark eyes were wild. She was beyond listening, beyond caring.

So Yayoi leaned down and rubbed the eraser over the lines of ink that formed her mouth.

The older girl's eyes widened in shock as it caught her in mid-shout. The speech bubble went blank and faded out. She stopped moving… and her head, face, and upper jaw slid in one direction, her lower jaw and everything below in another… both parts of her fell to the bottom of the page, limp and lifeless…

Yayoi's heart stopped.

Only a moment later, bright red ink began pooling across the page, staining it, oozing through the lines that made up Arisu's unmoving body. That ink slowly took up the corner of the page, then a quarter of it…

She sat staring at the growing pool of red, her mind a total blank. "No," whispered Yayoi. "Sato-san, I didn't mean to. I'm sorry. Sato-san?"

There was no answer. She opened her mind, praying desperately to hear Arisu's voice, even if it was cursing her and screaming in anger. Nothing, only silence.

Yayoi began to shudder as she pushed herself backward, away from the book, away from her drawing board. The pen was still in her numb fingers. She pried it loose and let it fall to the floor. Stumbling out of the chair, letting it tip over, she backed into the corner of her small room.

"No. I-I can't have." Her eyes were wide as saucers. She could still see the red-stained page, even from the corner. "I didn't mean to. I didn't mean it." Yayoi slid down the wall and sunk her fingers into her blonde curls, clutching at her temples. "I didn't mean it, Sato-san, it was an accident." She stared at her slippers, at the folds of her yellow cardigan, at the hem of her skirt… her skin was so cold… "I didn't mean it…"

Yayoi remained there in the corner, repeating the same words over and over for more than an hour. She was only interrupted by a small knock on the door.

"Yayoi?" said her mother's voice. "I made some almond jelly for dessert. Would you like some?"

"No thank you," she answered mechanically. She had never felt less like food in her life. She didn't _deserve_ food, after- Through a supreme effort, she managed another sentence. "I'm tired, Mama, I want to go to bed…"

"All right." There was concern in her voice. "Let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay."

Her mother's footsteps retreated down the hall.

The litany continued on in Yayoi's mind: _I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to…_

* * *

When Kyubey reappeared hours later, she was still there, huddled into a ball, staring at the floor. _Yayoi?_ he said. _Is something wrong?_

Conflicting emotions burned within her. Part of her wanted to hug him, part of her never wanted to touch him again, felt revolted by his very presence. "I killed her, Kyubey." Her voice was hollow. "I killed Sato-san. I couldn't bring her back out of the book, and when she wouldn't calm down… I killed her. I didn't mean to, but I killed her…"

_Oh dear,_ said Kyubey, padding closer. _You probably shouldn't have done that._

Yayoi wanted to scream at him, but her throat was too tight. Her voice emerged as a high squeak. "_Why?_ Why didn't it work? You told me magic always works, why couldn't I bring her back?"

Kyubey answered with impeccable calm. _You wished you could make people to respect your drawings. This was the form your power took… the power to make them grant you that respect, and nothing more. If you wanted to restore them afterward, you should have been more specific with your wish._

"Oh God," she whispered, clutching at her temples again. "I'm a murderer. I killed her. What will I do? How will I ever explain this to anyone?"

_Must you really explain?_ Kyubey asked, tilting his head to one side. _You're a Puella Magi now. The consequences of your actions and decisions shouldn't apply as they would to normal humans._

"I can't just _forget_ about her!" she almost shrieked. Only her worry that her mother would hear kept her voice down. "I have to do something, I have to make this right, but I can't! I _killed_ her, how am I ever supposed to make up for-"

A strange, icy calm descended over her. She had an idea. Just a glimmer of one, but it was enough. _Normal humans_, he had said. _The consequences of your actions and decisions shouldn't apply_. What did that remind her of? Of the stack of superhero comics and manga in her closet. Weren't there any number of superheroes who did what they did to atone for some past tragedy? She had this power, this terrible, frightening power… she knew some of its limits now…

"Kyubey," she whispered. "If… if I spent the rest of my life… being a hero, fighting bad guys along with fighting Witches… would that… make things right?"

Kyubey blinked. _I don't know. Human morality confuses me. Do _you_ think it would make things right?_

"I don't know either," she admitted. "But I think… I think I have to try. It's… it's the only way I can think of to repent for what I've done…"

_I see. Then I'll support you in this decision, Yayoi. As long as you continue the fight against the Witches, I'll help you._

Silently, Yayoi rose to her feet. They didn't seem to be doing so of her own accord; they took her across the room, over to the drawing board. Her hands reached out and took the page that was half-stained crimson. Moving on their own, her hands gently tore the page from the book. Now it was nothing more than paper; its magic was gone. Her hands crumpled the page into a ball, carefully, so that the redness wasn't visible anymore. They dropped it into her wastebasket.

"Kyubey," she said without looking at him. "I think I've decided on my name."

_You're changing it?_

"No, my superhero name. During the day, I'll still be Yayoi Kise." She hugged herself tight, still deathly cold. "During the night I'll be… Sunder." She tested the word. "Sunder." The Japanese pronunciation of "thunder"… it felt right. It also had "sun" in it, like Taiyoman. But it also meant something else. She knew the word from her English classes: "sunder" meant "to break".

It was right. It would work. Nothing could ever erase what Yayoi Kise had done, but Sunder could try to make up for it. Sunder could fight bad guys and Witches alike. Perhaps one day, Sunder would be able to dispel the terrible, icy cold inside her.

She looked down at the crumpled paper ball in the wastebasket one last time. "I'm sorry, Sato-san."

She never looked at it again. Sometime during the next week, the basket was taken from her room, and emptied into the burnable trash. The only evidence of Yayoi's crime, and the last trace of Arisu Sato, was eventually reduced to nothing but cinders.

* * *

As the weeks passed, Sunder made her presence known. She started small, foiling robberies, putting a stop to hostile bike gangs. All of the culprits went into her book.

She bought a portable radio, and learned online how to tune it to emergency frequencies. She made maps of the city, charting the back alleys and routes across rooftops that would keep her hidden in the darkness. Doing so, she was able to travel to crime scenes well before the police arrived. Nanairogaoka's police officers were baffled; no matter what it was, no matter how small the crime, its perpetrators were always gone without a trace.

Hiroshi Sato, Arisu's father, eventually started a public investigation into the whereabouts of his missing daughter and her two friends. Class 2-2 of Nanairogaoka Middle School was plagued with detectives and law enforcement officials for a few weeks, all diligently asking questions. When two of them came to the Kise household one afternoon when her mother wasn't home, Yayoi panicked and trapped both of them on blank pages… as she did with the next officer to show on her doorstep, and the next, until they stopped coming. Chiharu Kise grew worried at her daughter's sudden change in demeanor and paranoia around policemen. Then she grew suspicious… and one day she went into the book, too. The investigation continued, though there were no leads, no clues, and no evidence. Hiroshi Sato was forced to admit defeat. He retired from public office shortly afterward, a shadow of the powerful man he had once been.

It wasn't enough for her. Driven by guilt, she began to seek out villains instead of waiting for them to appear. The city became gripped by an outbreak of missing person reports. Icy tendrils of fear spread through the formerly cheerful little city, but no one ever found anything. Some suspected the Yakuza. None knew the truth.

In time, the other commanders of the Bad End Kingdom came looking for their lost comrade. Once Sunder learned who they were, the others, a witch, an oni, and a harlequin, joined Wolfrun on opposite pages from each other, one by one.

As the population steadily dwindled, there appeared more Witches in Nanairogaoka, spawned from the remaining people's despair. Over time, Sunder learned how to fight them, learned how to hone her abilities and use them to kill Witches quickly and efficiently as possible. She was never at a shortage of Grief Seeds.

One day Kyubey simply disappeared from her life. She found she didn't really need him; once she was done cleansing her Soul Gem with the Seeds, they went into her book and were erased. It was simple.

And finally, new magical girls appeared to combat the growing darkness. Not Puellae Magi; they were different. A coordinated team of four, they called themselves Precures…

* * *

**Nanairogaoka**

**Three months later**

"No, please, please stop! I can't run anymore…!" Miyuki Hoshizora, alias Cure Happy, fell to her knees in the empty, deserted street, breathing hard. Her pink and white costume was tattered and torn, her magenta pigtails disheveled.

"Come on, you have to get up," said Nao Midorikawa, Cure March. She was taller and far more athletic than her teammate, wearing a green version of the same costume, equally torn. The longest of her three lime-green ponytails brushed against the asphalt as she knelt to take her friend's arm. "We can't stop here."

"But the others… she… she took Reika and C-Candy, and…" Miyuki shuddered uncontrollably and let out a choked sob as the images flew through her mind again, images that were seared into her memory like brands. "… and what she did to poor Akane-"

"Don't think about Akane, just don't." Nao squeezed her eyes shut tight and fought the urge to throw up.

"But…" Miyuki stammered, looking up at her with teary eyes.

"I said _don't_," repeated Nao venomously. She slammed her fist into the asphalt; it left a sizeable crater in the street, and Miyuki shrieked and drew backward. "The… the only thing we can do is run away while we still can…" The admission was more painful than she would ever admit, but damn it, what else _was_ there?

Shakily, Miyuki rose to her feet and clenched her fists. A few traces of her old optimism began to show through her fear. "But we've got to s-stand our ground! We've got to fight her somehow!"

Nao wanted desperately to believe her, to fight alongside her once again… but after what that girl had done to Akane… "Don't you get it?" she said, astonished at her own bitterness. "Our powers aren't working on her, this is our only choice!"

Hearing her friend, the indomitable Nao Midorikawa, advising her to run away made Miyuki slump back to the pavement with a small moan.

"Oh no, come on, get up!" Nao grabbed her arm and shook hard. They couldn't afford to give into despair, not now. "Please get up…"

"Why? Why is this happening?" whispered Miyuki. It still didn't seem real, like it was all some terrible nightmare. "She… she should have been one of us, Candy said so… What _happened_ to her…?"

"I…" Nao shut her eyes and looked away. "I don't know. She always seemed so kind, so shy…"

"Wait." Miyuki looked up fearfully. "Did you hear that?"

Nao didn't need to hear. She hauled Miyuki to her feet. "We have to go. _Now._"

The sound Miyuki heard was footfalls echoing through the empty streets… and there weren't enough people left in Nanairogaoka to form a crowd that big. That meant only one thing: Sunder was coming.

They started to spill around the corner, ghastly monochrome things, moving in spastic, jerking motions… things that looked _almost_ like familiar people of the city, and were all the more horrible for the resemblance. There were policemen and bikers, teachers and students, authority figures and random civilians… most of the city's population, in fact, reproduced as drawings on paper, details filled in with black ink. She called them Sketches.

How she had discovered that power, no one knew, but now she could make these creatures apparently out of thin air, as many of them as she wanted. Her own personal army, completely subservient to her will. Somewhere in the massive crowd, Sunder walked among them, protected by them, seeking out the last two Precures, her book under her arm, her pen in hand.

"Miyuki, _go!_" shouted Nao, shoving her friend away. "You're the only one who even came close to damaging her, you've got to run!"

"Nao-chan, I won't leave you!"

"_I'll catch up, just go! Run!_"

Miyuki ran, tears streaming down her face, not daring to look back. She ran, though she knew of nowhere else to go. The Sketches were everywhere. Her powers were nearly exhausted. And Nao could only buy her so much time…

* * *

_I'll catch up._ It hurt Nao more deeply than she could say to lie to Miyuki like that. Miyuki had always been so bright, so cheerful… until they had discovered the true extent of Sunder's power and cruelty, she had never even considered the possibility that the Precures might fall. Hadn't they been chosen as "legendary warriors"? Didn't the heroes always triumph in her beloved picture books that she was always reading?

But the picture books never told of anything like this. The picture books never said what happened when one of the chosen heroes turned bad…

Nao dashed into the crowd of Sketches, visible as little more than a blur of green. They scattered in the wake she left behind, blown away like the scraps of paper that they truly were… but each one could move like a human, and could hit like a cinder block if their master so wished it. They had underestimated the Sketches before, and paid dearly.

Howling a battle cry, Nao cut into their ranks like a hurricane, lashing out with savage kicks that tore through their paper bodies. Red ink sprayed everywhere whenever one of these things died; she had to be careful, getting blinded by that ink would be suicide. Raging gales swept from her palms, forcing them back. By focusing her power, she could even slice through them with blades of razor-sharp wind, but that technique took time to concentrate… time she didn't have.

The sudden dryness of the air told her that Sunder was drawing near. _Maybe… maybe this time it'll work. Please, let it work._ _For Miyuki's sake, please…_ Directing some of her remaining energy into her feet, she crouched down low to the ground, her body like a coiled spring. Club-like fists rained hammer blows down on her as the Sketches crowded in around her, jostling for the best position to attack… and then they were thrown back by the shockwave as Nao leapt straight up thirty meters in the air.

This high above the city, hearing nothing but the wind sighing in her ears, she could almost smile. From up here, it looked much like the beautiful place that it used to be… not like the ghost town it was now. _But I guess I have to come back down sometime. Might as well be now._ Nao began to plummet back to earth, as she knew she must, scanning the massive crowd of black-and-white figures for a trace of color…

She found it, a tiny patch of yellow. Nao gathered all her remaining spirit into the Smile Pact at her waist, putting everything into this one shot. She was falling like a star from the heavens now, the wind was screaming… hopefully, the extra velocity would give her that much more power. A whispy green ball spun into form at the toe of her boot. It compacted into a tight little sphere of whirling power, ready to explode. She saw the yellow figure down below look up with alarm. Perhaps she knew what was about to happen. Nao drew her leg back and shouted as loud as she could. "_PRECURE MARCH SHOOT!_" Her heel struck the ball, spiking it straight down…

The explosion of tightly compressed air tore dozens of Sketches to shreds upon impact, and cast hundreds more to the winds. Mere seconds later, her energy expended, Nao hit the street with the force of a meteor.

When she awoke, she _hurt._ As a Precure, she could take punishment that would kill normal humans ten times over, but she had never attempted anything like this. It wasn't something she wanted to try again. Nao lay motionless in the meter-deep crater formed by her impact… there was a fine mist falling on her. She must have ruptured a water main. That at least meant that Sunder wouldn't be able to-

Sunder was standing right over her.

"Why, Midorikawa-san?" said the little blonde girl once known as Yayoi Kise. "You left Hoshizora-san behind to attack me. Why did you do that?"

_Oh hell. She's not even _hurt_. What do I do now?_ Nao coughed. "To try to stop you. Hello, Kise-san."

Yayoi frowned and stuck out her lip. With all she had done, how could she still manage to look that cute? "Don't call me that. My name is Sunder now."

"No it's not, Kise-san." Nao coughed again. She didn't _feel_ anything broken, but she still couldn't get up… "I've seen what Sunder does. That's not you… that's not the girl I know…"

Shadows grew across Yayoi's face. "You don't know me as well as you thought."

"Kise-san…" With strenuous effort, Nao raised her arm. She tried not to show fear, but she couldn't help trembling, just a little. "Please, you've got to stop. Is this really what you wanted? To fight your friends in an empty city?"

"I don't…" Yayoi paused. "I don't have any friends. Friends would have stopped them… Arisu and her bullies. Friends would have helped me, before it all started."

"We didn't _know_," said Nao, almost pleading. "We didn't know! You could have told us, you could have told _someone_… You didn't have to do all this. We were…" She didn't know why she said it. It was something Candy had told them, when they first caught her attention. Nao had never quite believed it herself, but… "We were supposed to be a team. You were supposed to be one of us, a Precure. What _happened_, Yayoi-chan?"

The smaller girl's face twisted. "Don't call me that."

"Yayoi, please. If there's any part of you that's still good, just put the book down…"

Now, strangely, she looked fearful… more like her old self. Her golden eyes were haunted. "I can't, Nao-chan. I'm scared… There's so many of them inside there now that I can't block out their screaming… I tried drawing things for them in there, to make them stop, but they won't stop. They never stop. I tried drawing them back to life…" She looked around at the broken Sketches littering the street, bleeding ink. "… but no matter how hard I try, they won't come out like they should. I can't get them _right_, they're just mindless copies. I _want_ to give the book up, Nao-chan, but I can't…"

"Why?" Nao whispered. Maybe, maybe she could get through to her, if she would only listen. "Why can't you?"

"Because if I give it up…" Yayoi summoned the book and clutched it to her chest. "Because if I give it up, they'll all be dead, nothing more than ink on paper. I'm the only one who can keep them alive. I don't want them to die…"

Nao couldn't help but shudder. "You could… I don't know. I don't know what to do, but we can find someone who does. I promise we can. There's got to be _someone _out there who can help, right?" She gave the girl a hopeful smile.

"You'd… you'd help me?" Yayoi was wavering. "Even after all this?"

"Poor little Yayoi-chan…" Nao sobbed with relief. "Of course we will. Miyuki-chan and I will help you- Yayoi-chan?"

Her face was now hard and cold as stone. "You're pitying me," she said.

"Wh-what?"

"You said 'Poor little Yayoi-chan,'" she said, with deadly calm. The glimpse of Yayoi that Nao had seen was gone, and now Sunder was back. "That's what people always thought. 'Poor little Yayoi-chan, she's so lonely.' 'Poor little Yayoi-chan, what a coward.' 'Poor little crybaby Yayoi-chan…'"

Nao froze, her body filling with ice. She had said it without thinking it. "No, wait. Please, Yayoi. I didn't mean it like that. You have to believe me!"

"Poor little Yayoi-chan would have fallen for it," she said, opening her book, flipping through page after page after page of screaming pen-and-ink figures. "But I'm not poor little Yayoi-chan anymore. I've changed… _they_ don't pity me. They all respect me now."

"Yayoi, _please…_"

She stopped at a blank page with one hand. The lightning bolt pen appeared in the other. "You know," she said, "For some people, I've been drawing things especially for them. Like for the violent ones… I draw them bleeding, so they can feel what it's like to hurt. And for the people who get drunk and break things? I draw bottles of water that they can't reach. It's like…" She paused, searching for the right word. "Like justice, I guess. Because that's what heroes do… they bring bad guys to justice."

"Please, Yayoi, you _know_ I didn't mean it!"

Yayoi held the book open in front of Nao, her thumb on a blank page. That page began to glow, filling with power as she whispered, "You're afraid of bugs, aren't you, Midorikawa-san?"

* * *

Sound travels far in abandoned cities. Miyuki heard the tremendous impact of Nao hitting the street even from several blocks away, and felt the vibrations rumble through the earth beneath her feet. So when she heard the now-familiar thunderclap of displaced air that always announced a new victim of Sunder's book… "No," she whispered, drawing her knees up tightly against her chin. She didn't think she had any more tears in her, but they kept falling regardless. "Nao-chan," she sobbed, lowering her head. "Nao-chan, not you too…"

It was only a few moments later that she heard the footsteps approaching. Sunder and her minions were moving again, seeking their next target. Miyuki remained huddled in her hiding spot, behind a wall that closed off an abandoned warehouse. She knew she had to keep running, but her legs wouldn't move.

The crowd of Sketches drew nearer. They were on the street outside. Sunder was speaking: "Come out, Hoshizora-san. Just give up. You're the only one left."

_Stay calm_, thought Miyuki. _Don't make a sound. Maybe if she can't find me, she'll just go away…_

"Please, Hoshizora-san," said Sunder. Her voice echoed eerily though the empty streets. "If you try to fight, you'll just make it worse for yourself. Midorikawa-san fought me, and then she tried to trick me…" Venom coursed through her tone. "I didn't let her. I hope I got the details on the roaches right. I've never really drawn them before, and I had to do so many in such a short time…"

Miyuki clapped a hand over her mouth. _Oh God, Nao-chan._

"If you come out now, it'll be better for you in the end. What I draw on your page doesn't have to be bad… Come on, Hoshizora-san. Please come out."

_Somebody help me,_ thought Miyuki desperately. _Please, anyone…_

And to her astonishment, someone put their hand on her shoulder. Miyuki stifled a scream and almost blasted that someone in the face with her remaining power… she thought for certain that anyone left in the city was inside, behind a locked door for their own safety. For one wild moment, she thought that perhaps Nao had pulled of a miracle, perhaps she had escaped…

It wasn't Nao. It was a girl Miyuki had never seen before, slightly older than her, taller, with the generous figure of a particularly lucky mid-teenager. She had amber-gold eyes and blonde curls that for a horrible moment reminded her of Sunder, but her face was kind, warm and gentle and serene. "It's going to be all right," said the new girl, quietly, so Sunder wouldn't hear.

Miyuki could barely speak thought her shock. "You… who…?"

The hand on Miyuki's shoulder squeezed. "I've come to help you. Stay here, I'll stop her."

"Are… are you another Precure?" She felt stupid for asking, but considering everything else that had happened…

The girl actually laughed, a soft, musical sound. "No, I'm not. My name is Mami Tomoe, and I'm a Puella Magi." She took hold of her skirt and made a curtsy, just like a proper medieval lady in one of Miyuki's beloved picture books. The girl wore a costume that looked vaguely European: a beret with white feather, long sleeves, what appeared to be a bustier, striped tights reaching up to her mid-thigh, high, zippered boots…

"I…" Baffled, Miyuki just stared at her. "I've never heard of-"

"I'm not surprised," said Mami. "We're different from you. Kyubey?"

At her feet, a small white creature appeared, something like a cat and something like a rabbit. It padded close to Miyuki and looked up at the new girl, and Miyuki heard it speak in her mind. _You called?_

"What _is_ that?" whispered Miyuki, staring at it. It sort of resembled Candy, and yet something about it was strange and unnerving.

"Don't worry, he's a friend," Mami said with a smile. "He told me what's happened here. Stay with him, and try not to make a sound."

At a loss for what else to do, Miyuki nodded and gathered the thing called Kyubey into her arms. He was warm and soft.

_I apologize,_ he said to her. _When I contracted her, I never suspected that she would go this far, or become this dangerous. She's become an anomaly._

"You mean you-"

"We'll explain everything we can after this is over, I promise," said Mami, brushing back one of her curling pigtails. She opened her hand, and an antique musket appeared in it with a golden flash. "For now, just stay here and let me handle Kise-san."

Miyuki watched in awe as this new girl strode confidently out past the wall and into the street…

* * *

Moving like a dancer, Mami Tomoe dove into battle with the Sketches, firing blasts from her muskets as quickly as she could summon them. They littered the street with the bodies of her foes as she bombarded their ranks… every shot was precise and methodical, every blunt strike took another creature down.

Yayoi watched her with growing anger and confusion. Where had she come from? Why wasn't she afraid? Lashing out with her pen, she threw a bolt of lightning at the older girl, only to have it stopped by an intricate latticework of glowing ribbons that sprouted from a spent casing, protecting her. Furiously, Yayoi let loose another bolt, and another, and another. The air burned hot around her, ionized by electricity as she screamed "_Who are you?_"

Mami didn't answer, she simply spun out of the way of the bolts she could not block, still with that serene calm about her that Yayoi found so unnerving. Gradually she made her way closer and closer, decimating Sketches by the dozen, shells and casings falling in a constant rain from her spent arsenal… she was within ten meters now, then five…

Yayoi commanded all her remaining forces to gather in front of her, drawing lines of light in the air to form a few more to bolster their numbers. This girl was relentless, she simply kept coming no matter what… The Sketches formed a living wall around her, their edges folding into each other. By doing so, they couldn't attack, but at least her attacker couldn't-

An entire battery of muskets appeared, floating behind Mami in midair. She raised her arm like a general about to issue a command to her troops, and spoke two words: "_Tiro Volley._"

Yayoi shrieked as her wall of minions was blasted to pieces by the barrage of musket fire. Frantically she threw open her sketchbook to an empty page. As soon as the girl showed her face, she would be-

A flurry of cheery yellow ribbons raced across the cracked pavement. Moving like snakes, one of them reared up and snatched Yayoi's pen from her hand. Another swiftly did the same to her sketchbook. Half a dozen more spun around and around her, pinning her arms to her sides and drawing her knees together. Yayoi screamed, lost her balance, and fell to the street, helplessly squirming as the strange girl walked calmly through the flaming remnants of the Sketches, coming to stand by her side. Another musket appeared in her hand; Yayoi felt its barrel press against her temple.

"Hello, Kise-san," said her captor. "My name is Mami. Let's talk."

"Let go of me!" Yayoi thrashed back and forth, straining against her bonds… until she heard the _click_ of the musket's stock, and saw Mami's finger tighten on the trigger.

"You know I can't do that," Mami said. She sounded oddly regretful. "You've become a threat to yourself and others. So big a threat, in fact, that Kyubey asked for my help."

Yayoi's eyes widened with shock and betrayal. "You know Kyu-"

"Yes," said Mami simply. "He's my friend too. In fact, I knew him before you did, Kise-san. You see, I'm a Puella Magi as well. Now, please stop struggling and listen to what I have to say. This will be your last chance at redemption."

Though she glared up at Mami with as much defiance as she could muster, inside Yayoi was confused… What kind of person would press the barrel of a gun against her head and offer such a thing?

"I understand, Kise-san." Of all the words she could have said, those were some of the last Yayoi ever expected to hear. "Kyubey told me about you when he asked for my help, told me about your wish. I know what it's like to feel like you're all alone. I know what it's like to want respect, to want to be a hero."

And to Yayoi's astonishment, she believed her. There was sincerity in her voice, yes, but also pain, a very familiar pain that she had almost forgotten, that she had buried down deep inside herself when Sunder was born.

"So I understand why you did it all, Kise-san," Mami continued, "even all these terrible things. But don't you see? Don't you see what you've become?"

"Wh-What I've…"

"A bully," said Mami softly. "Worse than that, a villain. Exactly what you were trying to stop."

"No." The younger girl was shocked to feel herself start to cry, something she hadn't done since the awful night that she killed Arisu Sato. "N-No. I… I…" Her body heaved, and a sob escaped her lips. Perhaps it was her magic, perhaps it was simply the way Mami said it… but either way, the truth of that statement cut Yayoi to the bone. "I didn't mean to," she whispered, drawing in a shuddering breath. "I didn't mean to, I really didn't…"

"I know." The sympathy in Mami Tomoe's voice only made her sob harder. "I know, and I'm sorry, Kise-san. I'm sorry it went this far. But if you want, you still have a chance. One last chance. Nothing will ever make up for the crimes you've committed here, but if you come with me, I can at least help you start over. We're both Puellae Magi, we can fight together. This is your chance to be a different kind of hero, Kise-san: not one who fights to gain respect, but one who fights for people's happiness, and protects them from despair. Maybe, just maybe, if you do that… one day you can learn to respect yourself again."

Yayoi held still, letting the words sink in. For a moment, even her tears stopped. It would mean leaving what was left of Nanairogaoka forever, she was certain. But it would be a fresh start… a step away from the darkness, a chance to be like the heroes she used to idolize. And she wouldn't be alone anymore, Mami would be there with her. Mami, who understood her and was willing to forgive the blood on her hands. But to face the things she had done to all those people trapped forever in her book, to Arisu and Akane, even if it was to let those things go… that terrified her, struck her with a fear that squeezed her heart in a grip of ice. The deadly chill spread outward from her heart through her veins, making her shiver uncontrollably… The Soul Gem on her hip filled with that coldness, and its amber glow began to fade.

"No," whispered Yayoi, her eyes dark and sorrowful. "No, it's too late… I can't…"

"Kise-san?"

"_No!_" She screamed the word to the skies, and lightning exploded from her body, from her eyes, her mouth, her fingertips, more powerful than any she had ever summoned before… it raced through the musket still held against her temple, into Mami's body, blinding her and blowing her backward. Yayoi's small body was swallowed up by a column of blazing light, and roaring thunder drowned out the sound of her scream…

By the time Mami returned to her senses, Miyuki Hoshizora was by her side, shaking her shoulder and weeping. The air still crackled sharply around them, and sparks danced on the sidewalks and in the remnants of street lamps, but there was no sign of Yayoi Kise. The only traces left of her were a lightning bolt-shaped brass pen and a handsome leather-bound sketchbook, both lying abandoned in the broken street.

* * *

**Another place…**

_That's impossible. I can't do anything right. All I ever do is make trouble for others… and embarrass myself… Why…? Will I always… just be like this… forever…?_

_ Then maybe it'd be better if you just died right now,_ said someone strange and unfamiliar. It almost sounded like a young girl's voice.

_Maybe it would be better just to die…_

_That's right,_ said the voice. _You should just die now._

_I should just… die…_

Her eyes opened. She was no longer on the lonely bridge that led to home. The city and its beautiful sunset were gone. She stood on a gently rolling landscape of scraps torn from oil paintings, all gray and lifeless and drained of color. The sky overhead was now blood-red, patterned with angry whorls of yellow and orange, and bizarre statues loomed out of the ground, their angles sharp and threatening.

The girl drew back in shock. "Wh-what is this place?"

In front of her, building itself up piece by piece, there appeared a great stone arch, like the one in photos she had seen of Paris. Something dark and ominous sat atop it… something _alive_…

She stumbled backwards, terrified and disbelieving. "What…? What's going on here?"

Now a trio of figures came through the arch, their movements jerking and spastic. They resembled vague, crude sketches of humans, scribbled onto scraps of paper by a mad artist. Slowly they walked toward the girl, raising their arms.

"Ah!" The girl tried to run, tripped, and fell to the ashen, painted ground. Paralyzed with fear, she could not rise again. She simply lay there helplessly, watching the strange things come closer, their awful visages reflecting in the lenses of her red-rimmed glasses… "_No!_"

The thunder of musket fire accompanied a volley of blazing arrows of pink light. The strange creatures lurched back, pierced through. Parts of the arch began to crumble. The ground inexplicably sprouted shining golden strings that reared up like snakes and bound the trio of monsters helplessly to the arch…

"That was a close one." The calm, serene voice came from one of the two figures now standing in front of the girl with the red-rimmed glasses. It was she who carried the musket; it was resting on her shoulder.

The second figure turned around to face her… and the girl's mouth fell open in astonishment as she recognized the kind, smiling face. "You're safe now, Homura-chan," said her classmate.

Homura Akemi was almost beyond the ability to speak. "Y-You're…!"

_They're magical girls_, said yet another voice, cold and clinical. _They hunt Witches._

Homura turned around and stared. That voice had come from a creature sitting behind her, looking something like a cat and something like a rabbit… and it had spoken directly to her mind.

"I guess you've discovered our little secret," said Homura's classmate, raising a rose-branch bow and notching another arrow. The blossom at the bow's peak lit up with pink fire as she pulled back on the bowstring. "Don't tell anyone in our class, okay?"

In unison, she and the girl with the musket fired. The arch was engulfed in a mighty explosion, the thing atop it roared with pain as its body burned…

The Artist Witch was dying in the flames. Had it any human awareness left, it might have wondered about the girl with the musket. Perhaps it would have recognized her, sparked a glimmer of memory within its consciousness… or perhaps not. Perhaps there was nothing left of its human form but rage and sorrow.

Perhaps things might have been different…

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

**Another Dawn**

_"Wow, Kise-san!"_

_ "Uwaaaah! Don't look!"_

_ "You're really good!"_

_ "Yeah, yeah!"_

_ "R-Really…?"_

_ "Looks great to me…"_

_ "Did you make that up yourself?"_

_ "Yes. I love drawing pictures like this… but it's childish, right?"_

_ "No, no, not at all! Look at me, I love picture books!"_

_ "I didn't know you were good at drawing…"_

_ "You can show the entire class, too!"_

_ "Mmm-hmm!"_

_ "I-It's embarrassing, I'll just get bullied! Please, keep this a secret!" Yayoi Kise clutched her sketchbook to her chest and ran for the stairwell, blushing scarlet. Soon she was lost to sight._

_ Behind her, the two other girls stared. The first one was mostly dumbfounded; she had known Kise for quite some time, and never suspected she had that kind of talent._

_ The second girl was equally baffled at first, though she had only met Kise a few days ago… but then she began to smile. She had the beginnings of an idea… There were supposed to be five Precures, after all, and only two had been found so far… so maybe…_

**END.**


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